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Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Burnaby BC
Posts: 85
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Diary of a 2014 Black Rock 19B owner
DIARY OF A 2014 BLACK ROCK 19B OWNER
October 2014
Well. Have owned this trailer for one year, and only just managed to find the time and ability to finally, finally, test it out!
The Front End:
• The power tongue is a nice feature, and comes with an emergency manual crank handle. Power certainly makes set-up and take-down and easier process.
• Great propane capacity, with two 30 gallon tanks. Has a black plastic cover, and this one gets an Honorable Mention. For a start, it’s flat black. No more streaky black marks to contend with. And I love the flip-top access port, eliminating the need to remove the cover to turn things on and off.
• Copied an idea we saw on another trailer – put a trash container upside down over the power tongue post. This protects the post during storage, and provides a trash can for camping, if needed! It stays on securely for travelling too.
• Although we don’t use it all the time, we purchased a Tongue Twister. Not especially useful if you have someone guiding the truck to the trailer, but if you’re doing it solo, it only leaves one aspect to get right, and you can use the twister to move the trailer tongue left to right as needed. Makes it much easier to do a solo hitch up, and worth the bucks.
The Chassis:
• The factory claims it’s stronger and better than many of the competition’s frames. We have no idea if that’s true, but the trailer tows well, is very stable, and the inside floor feels very solid. The electric brakes seem better – smoother - than on our previous trailer. The scissor stabilisers on each corner work well, and we like the fact that they have a hex nut. Makes it a snap to use an electric drill to run them up and down.
The Awning:
• This is our first experience with a power awning. Absolutely awesome! We always found manual awnings were a pain to work….this one is very to operate. And the automatic sensor to drop one end of the awning if water builds up on it works as advertised.
The Step:
• It might seem a bit odd to give this a mention, but it deserves it. Reach in to flip it out, and no danger of banging your hand on the chassis. On our previous trailer, you had to be careful. And it’s been engineered properly. Once deployed, the lower step is about the same distance from the ground as it is from the upper step. On our old trailer, it was a bigger step from ground to the lower step, requiring a small ground platform to equalise. Simple design, well executed.
• Because we boondock, to help reduce the dirt being tracked into the trailer, we installed a clip-on all-weather carpet cover for the upper step.
The Inside:
• The refrigerator has good volume, is easy to fire up, and is quiet. Looks and feels like quality.
• The furnace is easy to operate, and not overly noisy. We love how the ducts are in the walls, and not the floor. Floor ducts are a pain, and fill with dirt and debris easily. Thumbs up on this one! Should mention at this point, that when we purchased, we had the air conditioner removed, and replaced with a Fantastic Fan. We boondock mostly, and don’t need or want an air conditioner (yet!). The fan is eminently more useful. We learned that for storage, better to remove the fuse, otherwise there is a parasitic draw (due to the moisture sensor on this model). A little bit of Velcro on the fuse holder and the frame alongside, and the fuse is always right there, handy for reinstalling. That one was the wife’s gifted idea!
• The Jensen sound system seems to be a very good one. Nice clear sound, and the convenience of a remote control.
• Love the electronic ignition on the stovetop elements, but wonder why they didn’t do the same for the oven.
• The bathroom design is good, although the basin arrangement is poorly designed. Water easily splashes behind the tap, and it needs to be dried after every use. Otherwise, here comes the mold! Note to selves: the sink top and tap needs to be replaced with a better unit.
• Don’t like the blinds too much. Difficult to raise and lower, they don’t fold in the pleats easily, and just look like poor quality. Note to selves: consider replacing with regular pull-down blinds at some stage. And the fancy material at the top of each blind seems superfluous. It’s a taste thing, we know. But we kept bumping the bedroom one off its track with our shoulders, and it was irritating.
• The dual pedestal posts didn’t work for us. we found it difficult to get our legs around them. That’s personal though – not all owners woud find that. We are going to convert them to removable table legs from Ikea. That way the table can be easily moved, or removed entirely, as needs dictate.
• Regardless of the factory hype, this model doesn’t have enough easy access storage space in the kitchen. That’s probably just a personal thing. We like to carry Stuff, but will need to pare it down somewhat. It’s a compromise we weren’t expecting to have to make.
• When we bought the trailer, we had the dealer replace all of the interior lights with LED’s. They give a nice white light, and use less battery than incandescent bulbs.
• Also at time of purchase, we had the dealer install a pull handle on the inside of the screen door, something we found to be surprising utilitarian. And on the outside, we had a large folding grab handle installed, to make getting in and out of the trailer easier.
• The supplied short queen mattress is foam, but only four inches thick. Might work for light framed people, but we needed to add a 4 inch memory foam topper. We found that combination quite comfortable. The topper needed trimming, since it came as a full queen length, and we trimmed it with a regular jigsaw, fitted with an extra-long metal cutting blade – it was easy to do, and made an excellent trim.
• In looking at where to start affixing extras, like paper towel racks and coat hooks, it’s proving a challenge. The solution so far is using industrial Velcro, because as helpful as the factory is when you get actually hold of someone, they do not answer emails. None of ours, anyway…we have three so far unanswered. Seems like they don’t even read them. It would be helpful if the factory provide diagrams of where things are inside the walls.
And while on this topic, what’s with the factory handbook? It’s advertising – just one handbook for all models? Come on guys….provide a handbook for each model. Surely that’s not too much to ask…..
The Roof:
• The roof is designed with a 5 inch curvature left to right. It sheds water more efficiently that a flat roof, and I suspect will be much less susceptible to leaks. And on the inside of the trailer, it makes for generous headroom.
• We put in a 160 watt solar panel, and now wish we had doubled it. It keeps the 2 six volt golf car batteries reasonably well charged, but more would be better. At least when we had it installed by the dealer, we had them run wires for a possible future install of a Trimetric battery meter too.
• We had vent covers installed over all fan vents. Makes the likelihood of water ingress during storms and rain much less likely.
Miscellaneous Stuff:
• Because the Black Rock has flat siding, putting a vertical level on it makes it very easy to check the level of the trailer side to side. Still working out the best gizmos for levelling. Those Andersen-3604 Camper Levelers look interesting……like to see them in action before we spend.
• Decided in getting a quality generator, and purchased a Yamaha EF2000iS. Happy with it. Reasonably quiet, easy to operate, and service-friendly.
• We also decided it would be smart to carry a 12 volt tire compressor. We bought a VIAIR 300P unit that has great online reviews. This model clips onto the battery terminals, which from the reviews is the better method. It just seemed to us that being independent of gas station compressors was a good thing…..
• In the what-tools-do-you carry department, we have a basic tool kit assembled in a small metal box. In addition, we also carry a torque wrench, and a lug wrench. And on a trip-by-trip basis, have always carried a cordless drill and jigsaw kit.
We have been trailer RV’ers since 2006, so had a pretty good idea of what works for us, and what does not. We are very happy with our decision to buy this Black Rock 19B, and look forward to many years of happy usage.
Nick B
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